Reconciling Ways of Knowing

23/03/2025

For many Indigenous Peoples across North America, water is sacred and central to the spiritual, cultural and personal aspects of life. Modern governance of freshwater across North America impacts these longstanding and ongoing relationships to water and to the economic viability of traditional lifestyles. The knowledge generated from these holistic relationships, along with the transfer of intergenerational knowledge, can inform modern approaches to the sustainable management of freshwater resources.

On World Water Day (March 21, 2025), the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) launched a new portal on Indigenous Approaches to Freshwater Management in North America. By bringing together insights, testimonies and knowledge, this portal documents diverse Indigenous approaches, challenges and relationships to freshwater, and provides recommendations to decision-makers on how to better consider and respect Indigenous rights and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK).

This portal is one of CEC’s projects led by the Traditional Ecological Knowledge Expert Group (TEKEG) and focuses on documenting the approaches and TEK used by Indigenous Peoples and communities that are related to freshwater management. The recommendations developed by and with Indigenous Peoples throughout its work have consistently noted that when Indigenous Knowledge Systems, stewardship practices and rights to freshwater are considered from the outset and incorporated into freshwater management strategies, Indigenous Peoples can be leaders in helping to keep water clean and safe for generations to come.

For many Indigenous Peoples across North America water is sacred. Water is also at the core of the six pillars under CEC’s Strategic Plan: water

24/12/2024

Michael Yellow Bird is a professor in the U of M’s faculty of social work and member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation in North Dakota, USA. His work spans a range of Indigenous and decolonial topics.

Yellow Bird’s current research looks at the use of AI to build critical literacy in Indigenous youth and support interactions between people and dogs on reservations.

“I’m working with a team that’s going to use the AI with youth to learn more about their culture, more about their language, more about their identity, their health and well-being, and then at some point, use AI to design and imagine their future,” he said. “I’m doing it to help raise the empowerment and the critical literacy of Aboriginal youth for self-sufficiency and sovereignty.”

Yellow Bird explained that many current advances made by the western research sphere stem from ancient knowledge.

Yellow Bird added that exploring the wisdom of our ancestors thousands of years ago, who had different understandings of the earth, plants and animals is beneficial, especially as technology continues to progress at breakneck speed.

Previous advances in technologies, while they may have allowed people to flourish, have sometimes led to destruction, harm and war. Our current slate of technologies has even greater implications for the future of the planet.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a machine’s ability to perform tasks associated with the intelligence characteristic of humans, such as reasoning, finding

23/12/2024

By decoding the DNA of the beaked hazelnut (Corylus cornuta), a native plant that thrives in British Columbia, a team of multidisciplinary scientists is providing new insight into how ancestral Indigenous peoples stewarded plants across the province.

“The misconception that Indigenous peoples did not use or steward the land is widespread across North America, but is very pointed in British Columbia, where landscapes are often described as ‘wild’ or ‘untouched,’” says Armstrong of the engrained cultural biases she seeks to address through her research.

Far from being only “hunter-gatherers” — an anthropological designation of the early 20th century to describe Indigenous peoples on the northwest coast — the study challenges settler-colonial narratives by establishing people actively cultivated hazelnut on a continental scale, beginning likely 7,000 years ago.

By decoding the DNA of the beaked hazelnut (Corylus cornuta), a native plant that thrives in British Columbia, a team of multidisciplinary scientists is providing new insight into how ancestral Indigenous peoples stewarded plants across the province. 

21/12/2024

Valerisa Gaddy grew up on the border of Arizona and New Mexico – in Navajo Nation. “I was constantly [shuttling] back and forth between res and non-res communities, because my parents wanted me to attend schools that weren’t on the reservation,” the research scientist remembers.

As an Indigenous student, Gaddy came up against a number of other challenges. “Indigenous knowledge is still not recognized as science, and my dissertation kept getting sent back because there was ‘too much Indigenous knowledge’ in it. I was told if I want to be taken seriously as a scientist, I have to reduce the amount of Indigenous knowledge in there.”

Against the odds – and in spite of the discrimination she received – Gaddy defended her dissertation, receiving a PhD and master of science in environmental science from the University of Arizona, as well as a bachelors in microbiology from New Mexico State University. She now works as the community conservation director at the nonprofit Watershed Management Group, helping communities across Southern Arizona thrive in the Sonoran Desert.

Valerisa Gaddy heads up Cool Tucson, and is helping the Pascua Yaqui Nation develop rain gardens.

18/12/2024

Communities like the Makahs, Yakamas and Puyallup lived in harmony with the rivers and coasts of the U.S. Pacific Northwest for generations. They revered the salmon, relying on it for food, livelihoods and cultural traditions. Waterways and salmon populations thrived — and so did native communities.

But beginning in the mid-1800s, everything changed.

The government restricted local communities’ fishing rights, dammed the rivers and expanded the commercial fishing industry. Commercial agriculture grew. Pesticides from nearby farms polluted waterways. Salmon populations plummeted.

The Makahs and others fought back through the “Fish Wars” of the 1960s, eventually earning back the right to fish their ancestral waters, though disputes linger to this day. Local communities now largely co-manage waterways such as the Columbia River with the Washington state government. They work to protect and restore salmon habitats by implementing fishing seasons and installing “fish ladders” to help fish navigate dammed waterways. While discussions on how best to manage the rivers continue, salmon populations have started to increase.

The case of the Pacific Northwest is just one example of how Indigenous communities play an integral role in sustainably managing waterways. Yet too often, they’re excluded from policymaking or denied their rights to steward the ecosystems they coexist with and depend upon.

Indigenous and local communities hold immense knowledge about the ocean. Yet they're often overlooked in deciding how it's managed.

09/12/2024

Several current and former UC Santa Cruz faculty and staff have joined with leading experts in the field of conservation genomics to launch Wise Ancestors, a non-profit centering Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities as co-creators of biodiversity conservation projects.

These projects, dubbed “Conservation Challenges,” use genomic sequencing, biobanking, and benefit-sharing to help protect species from the current extinction crisis and ultimately conserve Earth’s genetic heritage. The challenges are hosted on the new Wise Ancestors Platform, a first- of-its-kind tool to crowdfund and coordinate species-specific genomic sequencing projects. These projects will be tied to explicit benefit-sharing initiatives for conservation, led by Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities.

As the founding members shaped the organization's mission and operational framework, one insight stood out: conserving biodiversity requires more than genomic sequencing and biobanking—it demands addressing the human behaviors that are driving biodiversity loss.

Central to this is recognizing and empowering the knowledge and practices of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, who have sustainably stewarded Earth’s ecosystems for millennia. These communities, however, have faced displacement and atrocious harms at the hands of Western settlers, who largely replaced their ancestral and proven land management practices with new, unproven methods.

To counter these harmful practices, the nonprofit decided that each Conservation Challenge would include not only the genomic sequencing and biobanking work, but also an “upfront benefit-sharing” component, in which they support an Indigenous Peoples or Local Communities project to conserve a species or its habitat. This approach ensures that Conservation Challenges unite Western genomic approaches with traditional ecological methods, and also support Indigenous and Local Communities in protecting biodiversity.

Several current and former UC Santa Cruz faculty and staff have joined with leading experts in the field of conservation genomics to launch Wise Ancestors, a non-profit centering Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities as co-creators of biodiversity conservation projects

06/12/2024

742 new species of wildlife and plants have been discovered in the Congo Basin in the last ten years, a report released today by WWF reveals. The report entitled New Life in the Congo Basin: a Decade of Species Discoveries (2013 - 2023) highlights the remarkable biodiversity and the urgent conservation needs of one of the world's most vital ecosystems.

The report also celebrates the role of indigenous knowledge in conservation. Indigenous communities, who have coexisted with these forests for generations, are key to preserving and understanding this biodiversity. Many of the species in this report, while newly described in scientific literature, have been familiar to local communities through generations.

“For centuries, indigenous communities have lived in harmony with the forests. Recognising their knowledge is integral to conservation success,” said Moise Kono, Indigenous Peoples Coordinator for WWF Cameroon. “It is crucial that their voices and rights are respected as stewards of this land,” Kono added.

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (3 December 2024) - 742 new species of wildlife and plants have been discovered in the Congo Basin in the last ten years, a report released today by WWF reveals. The report entitled New Life in the Congo Basin: a Decade of Species Discoveries (2013 - 2023) highlights the remarka

21/11/2024

When a mysterious and deadly illness began to sicken members of the Navajo community in the Four Corners region of the Southwestern U.S. in 1993, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) investigators were stumped.

However, the cause of the illness was less of a mystery to Navajo elders. Because officials were willing to listen to valuable insight gained from centuries of traditional knowledge, a virus that was previously unknown to infect humans in North America was identified as the source of the disease.

Diné elders and healers recognized a recurring pattern related to the ongoing respiratory outbreak in the Four Corners region. Similar outbreaks had occurred in 1918 and 1933, and there were records of others further back, predating bubonic plague in Europe.

These previous outbreaks occurred following years of excess precipitation. The increased rainfall caused by the 1992–1993 El Niño phenomenon led to a bumper crop of pinyon pine nuts, an important food source for the local rodents. This abundant food supply resulted in a rodent population explosion.

In Navajo tradition, humans and mice come from different worlds and, therefore, should be kept separate. Upsetting the balance with too much intermingling between species can bring on diseases, like what was seen in the Four Corners region.

Elders warned their people to be careful of deer mice and prairie dogs, as contact with their waste could spread disease. They recommended burning contaminated clothing and sealing food to protect it from rodent access and contamination.

When CDC investigators met with tribal elders, they were informed of this regional history. One of the first important clues to the identity of the pathogen came from these meetings. Because investigators were willing to seek out local knowledge and take in the wisdom granted to them, they began to make real progress in identifying the mysterious illness.

When a mysterious and deadly illness began to sicken members of the Navajo community in the Four Corners region of the Southwestern U.S. in 1993, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) investigators were stumped.

18/11/2024

As the air cools down, signalling the arrival of autumn, BC’s coastline is covered by a majestic show of foliage. Wandering under the canopy of dark red maple trees and golden oaks glimmering in the sunlight, you may think these wonders are created by nothing but nature — but you would be wrong.

For millennia, Indigenous communities have maintained forest gardens, a type of historically managed ecosystem, along the Pacific Northwest coast.

Forest gardens typically include perennial fruit, nut trees and shrub species, with swaths of land offering abundant resources for surrounding fauna and Indigenous communities.

As Western agriculture practices have caused considerable loss in biodiversity and resilience in ecosystems, examining Indigenous practices in forest gardens can provide valuable insights into current methods.

In addition to controlled burnings, other traditional management practices include biodegrading leaf matter and planting complementary species like crab apples and hazelnuts to facilitate nutrient exchange through soil.

“When you have a very multifunctional and diverse system like a forest garden with berries, rice roots, hazelnuts, crab apple, you have plenty of different root systems and [and] types of molecules that are executed by the roots, so the microbial community is way more diverse,” said Cornelis.

“To understand how these systems work [and] how they might be beneficial to the people of the land and to the animals and to the health of the ecosystem … you have to talk with the people of the land: the Indigenous people” said Ritchie.

For millennia, Indigenous communities have maintained forest gardens, a type of historically managed ecosystem, along the Pacific Northwest coast.

15/11/2024

New Zealand scientists have worked with a Maori community vulnerable to earthquakes, tsunami, landslides and other natural hazards to reduce risk.

GNS Science, funded through Wellington quake research program It’s Our Fault, joined forces with the Takapuwahia community, which is home to 1500 people.

“As climate disasters increase in frequency and intensity, Maori face growing threats to their lands, homes, taonga, people and culture,” Takapuwahia Marae board chair Callum Katene said.
The program empowers communities “to lead themselves in times of crisis with evidence-based approaches to ensure they are able to better respond and recover from disasters.

“Indigenous knowledge complements and contributes to disaster management. By blending with advanced disaster management practices, we will identify when, where and how tikanga can provide for the unique needs of Maori and wider communities.”

https://buff.ly/3AEcFE3

12/11/2024

In recent years, sustainability has become a core value in the beauty industry as consumers increasingly demand products that are not only effective but also ethically sourced and environmentally friendly.

One exciting development in this trend is the growing use of Australian native products in beauty formulations. Indigenous knowledge of these plants, passed down for generations, is playing a vital role in the shift toward more sustainable beauty practices.

Australia is home to a wide variety of native plants, many of which have unique properties that are highly beneficial for skin care and hair care. From the antioxidant-rich Kakadu plum to the hydrating emu apple, these plants have long been used by Indigenous Australians for their healing and protective qualities. Now, the global beauty industry is starting to recognise their potential.

By incorporating Indigenous knowledge into product development, beauty brands are not only creating more effective and sustainable products but also acknowledging and respecting the cultural heritage of Indigenous Australians. This collaboration fosters a deeper understanding of how to use these native plants responsibly and ethically.

In recent years, sustainability has become a core value in the beauty industry as consumers increasingly demand products that are not only effective but also ethically sourced and environmentally friendly.  One exciting development in this trend is the growing use of Australian native products in b...

09/11/2024

Managing invasive species in the Sea to Sky region has greatly improved through the partnership between the Sea to Sky Invasive Species Council (SSISC) and the Nation.

This collaboration follows a "two-eyed seeing" approach, which blends Indigenous knowledge with Western science to better care for the land, says Claude-Anne (Clo) Godbout-Gauthier, communications and outreach manager for SSISC.

“We’ve worked with the Squamish Nation for years to manage invasive species on reserve lands,” she said.

“Together, we decide which species and areas our crews should focus on during the summer.”

“We are always learning from our Indigenous partners, like the Squamish Nation, about their deep connection to the land and the importance of culturally significant species,” she said.

She also pointed out how serious the issue is.

“Our Indigenous partners recognize the serious threat that invasive species pose—not just to people and infrastructure, but to the environment and culturally vital species as well.”

‘Invasive species do not respect property boundaries,’ says Sea to Sky Invasive Species Council.